Member of Parliamentary Finance: Iran will be affected by US sanctions if imposed on Iraq

Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Jamal Cougar, Thursday (January 16, 2020), said that Iran will be affected by the US sanctions if imposed on Iraq, pointing out that those sanctions will also affect the ability to secure employee salaries.

Cougar said in an interview with (Baghdad Today), that "the amounts allocated in each federal budget for salaries are estimated at 40 billion dollars, thus imposing US sanctions on Iraq and freezing oil revenues in the US Federal Reserve will affect the ability to secure those salaries, given that Oil represents nearly 90% of the federal budget. "

He added, "If the sanctions are imposed, they will affect Iran as well, given that the volume of trade exchange between Iraq and Iran reaches annually $ 14 billion," noting that "this means that Iran will not be able to obtain the hard currency from Iraq."

The American newspaper, "The Wall Street Journal," has said that the administration of President Donald Trump is going to undermine the economy of Iraq, if he goes ahead with the implementation of his parliament’s decision demanding the removal of American forces from the country, against the background of the recent strike near Baghdad airport.

The newspaper quoted Iraqi officials (whose identities have not been established), that "the US State Department, warned that the United States may suspend the account of the Iraqi Central Bank, at the Federal Reserve Bank, in New York, in a move that could undermine the already fragile Iraqi economy."

Prior to that, US President Trump threatened to impose economic sanctions on Iraq after the parliament voted to ask Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to expel about five thousand three hundred American soldiers.
"The Iraqi government must pay the money, to US taxpayers if it wants to withdraw American forces from there," Trump said, in an interview with the American "Fox News" channel.
Turning to the way in which the money can be collected from the Iraqis, saying: "We have a lot of their money. There is 35 billion dollars in an account," without additional details.

On Sunday (January 05, 2020), the House of Representatives voted on the exit of all foreign and American forces from Iraq, the abolition of the role of the international coalition in Iraq, in addition to canceling the security agreement with America by the Iraqi government.

Article Credit: https://baghdadtoday.news/
Special Thanks to Charles Bright!!